Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Gowanus Residents Hoping Full Community Board 6 Will Follow Land Use Committee's Recommendations Regarding Lightstone Development On Bond Street

Gowanus Residents Hoping Full Community Board 6 Will Follow Land Use Committee's Recommendations Regarding Lightstone Development On Bond Street

On Thursday, September 27th, Community Board 6's Community Board 6 Landmarks/Land Use Committee recommended that the City Planning Commission table an application at 363-365 Bond Street submitted by Lightstone Group to the NYC Department of City Planning requesting a three-year renewal of a previously approved special permit and approval for âminor modification of this special permit, "until such time as various specific conditions are met."

In addition, members of the committee voted 14 to 3 in favor of asking for a supplemental Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the project as well as asking Lightstone to commit to:*have 30 percent of the units be affordable *reducing the over-all height of the buildings to eight stories as opposed to 12 stories.*follow Community Board Responsible Contractor Conditions (which include union labor)

The matter will go in front of the full Community Board on October 10th, where a final vote will be taken.Here is the information:Community Board 6 General Board MeetingOctober 10that 6:30 PMProspect Park Residence 1 Prospect Park West Brooklyn, NY 11215Though the full Community Board mostly aligns its vote to the committee's vote, Gowanus residents are not taking a chance.They are currently collecting signatures on a petition that they will present to members of the Board on Wednesday evening.A statement reads:Even though the turnout at the Public Hearing was larger than any other hearing in the neighborhood in recent memory, and even though the number of folks opposed to the project outnumber those who were for it 3 to 1, and even though the CB6 Land Use subcommittee voted to urge the Department of City Planning to TABLE the Lightstone Group Proposal for Bond and Carroll Street 12 to 2, it now lies with the larger body of CB6 to determine whether this recommendation will be passed along to DCP. We are hoping that they will listen to the community and approve the recommendation. But we want them to know that there is widespread community support for this motion. And since the Lighstone Group has hired at least 3 lobbying groups to actively work on this, targeting the Department of City Planning, NYC Council members, and others, we feel it was very important to take this action in order to make sure that the community's voice, and not just that of Lightstone lobbyists, are heard. (You can go here and enter "Lightstone" to see the companies they have employed for this and who their targets are: http://www.nyc.gov/lobbyistsearch/ )

The petition can be found here: http://savegowanus.org/petitionPlease make time to attend this important Community Board 6 meeting and to sign the petition.